ILOILO – In this province, no business establishments, market vendors, food kiosks, sari-sari stores, ambulant vendors, and the like will be allowed to utilize or provide plastic bags and/or sando bags as secondary packaging materials to customers.
Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. has signed Provincial Ordinance 2019-193 regulating single-use plastics and Styrofoam food containers and promoting native baskets and other biodegradable and recyclable materials as alternatives.
Restaurants serving food are prohibited from using plastic containers, drinking straws and the like but shall provide proper utensils (ex. stainless or metal) and drinking glass to dining customers.
Also, in lieu of single-use plastic sando bags, stores and other retail establishments shall make available as alternative legally-compliant packaging material to customers such as but not limited to, native woven bags or basket made of buri or pandan, bamboos strips or rattan, paper box, cloth bag, eco-bags and the like.
Local government units are expected to adopt and enforce Provincial Ordinance 2019-193, according to Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) senior environment management specialist Mitzi Peñaflorida.
Of the 43 LGUs in this province, only three – Oton, Zarraga and Dueñas – have municipal ordinances regulating single-use plastics and Styrofoam containers for food and food products, including plastic utensils. This prompted the crafting of Provincial Ordinance 2019-193.
“Single-use plastics include straws, stirrers and plastic bottles we throw away after using. They end up polluting our bodies of water,” said Peñaflorida.
The ordinance was authored by Sangguniang Panlalawigan member Marcelo Valentin Serag.
It, however, allows the use of plastic bags commonly used as primary packaging for wrapping unpacked fresh food in supermarkets, wet markets, restaurants, canteens, and the like, for so long as they end up recyclable and justified on the grounds of public hygiene.
Peñaflorida said the PENRO would conduct a massive information dissemination on the ordinance.
LGUs must form task forces to ensure the provincial ordinance’s enforcement, she added.
Ordinance violators face the following penalties:
* 1st offense – fine of P1,000 and confiscation of plastic bags
* 2nd offenses – fine of P3,000 and confiscation of plastic bags
* 3rd offense – fine of P5,000, confiscation of plastic bags and/or six months imprisonment at the discretion of the court, and revocation of business permit or license/PN